h that we were
friends, which indeed our dress showed, we ran along it, and leaped into
the fore-chains.

A few pistols were fired and pikes thrust at us before the seamen
discovered that we were not pirates and a wounded Malay thrust his pike
into the back of one poor fellow as he was about to spring forward. A
few of the Dyaks followed our example, and we endeavoured to preserve
their lives, but no sooner did the Malays perceive what had happened
than they attempted to reach the brig in the same way. With terrific
shrieks they rushed on, but they were too late--the sea had already
reached the deck of the prahu. The Dutchmen cut off the grapnels, and
with a sudden lurch, down she went, carrying with her the still
shrieking and threatening warriors. I shall never forger the dreadful
expression of countenance of those almost demon-like beings, as,
brandishing their arms with furious gesticulations, their feet still
clinging to the platform on which they so often had fought and conquered
in many an action, the water closed over their heads. How great was the
contrast which a few short minutes had wrought! But lately we were
surrounded by them, and had every prospect of sharing their fate, and
now we were among civilised men eager to succour us. Truly we had to
thank Heaven who had so mercifully preserved us.

As I lay that night in a hammock, slung in the cabin of the kind Dutch
officer who commanded the brig, I heard a voice whisper softly in my
ear,--"God is great--God is everywhere."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

As I was climbing into the chains of the brig, I caught sight, through
the smoke of the pistols flashing round us, of a Malay closely following
me. I thought that he was about to run his kriss into me, and I was
about to strike him on the head with a sword I had seized to defend
myself, when I observed that it was young Hassan, who had all the time
been watching our movements with the intention of aiding us. The rush
of seamen and the Dyaks threw him off the spar, and he was precipitated
into the sea, between the two vessels.

"Poor! poor fellow! I could have done much to save his life," I
exclaimed to myself. "But it is not a moment for regret."

Scarcely a minute after, the prahu sunk, ingulfing all with her.
Fairburn and I, with those who had been preserved, were going aft to the
captain, when I caught sight of a marine levelling his musket at the
head of a man floating in the water.

"There st